At least no malaria (so far!)

As much as we would like to present you with a cheerful blog post, we're sorry to say that's not going to happen. It's going to be more like a post titled 'Traveling is not just cool and exciting and nice, but also sometimes shitty.' or 'Vietnam is not all fun and games' - or 'let's vent, we've had enough of being positive'.

Okay, it all started when we went to a small asocial train station near the last hotel. We then realized that we had booked the train tickets for the wrong date. How did that happen? This is what the options look like when you book a train for August 30th:
4:30 - 16:00
13:00 - 24:00
18.00 - 5:00
00:50 - 11:50
Great, we thought and booked the last option (thinking that the date would be valid until the end of service, like a daily ticket on Swiss Railways). But no... We should have booked the 00:50 ticket for the next day, August 31st. Okay, there goes 85.- per person - great. Then the thoughts continued. Hmm, last time the trains were fully booked 24 hours in advance, so what's the probability of having available seats now? Hmm, great, there's no hotel anywhere near this small train station, so we would have to sleep on the street - fantastic. When we arrived at the train station, we didn't find anyone at the counter. Eventually, someone showed up, but couldn't speak English, luckily we managed to get two seats. Everything was fine on the train for about 4 hours until an old woman sat right in the middle of my bed and refused to leave. Quote: 'Foreigner, foreigner - I sleep here, you sleep somewhere else'. I (Barbara) tried everything to get rid of her (including kicking, I'm not proud of it) - to no avail. I had to wake up Näthu and when he sternly told her to go upstairs, she went to the upper bed. But she left the door open and lingered around the cabin, so I couldn't really sleep anymore. When we arrived in Hanoi, we realized: Hanoi is not so great! Noisy, dirty, terrible traffic, and everyone is just plain mean! Plus, we started to experience extreme stomachaches and digestive problems again. BUT we knew it would all be worthwhile because we booked a two-day, beautiful boat trip in Halong Bay. That would be the highlight of our trip, we knew it. Fortunately, in the evening, we received a text message: 'Sorry, we have to inform you that your tour is canceled due to the tropical storm coming'. We can't even begin to explain the frustration we felt in that moment. We decided to just drink beer, beer, beer and motivate each other. So we booked a new hotel that offered an indoor spa, a Jacuzzi in the room, and free fitness, as well as a room with a balcony and terrace. Great. But when we arrived there, we realized it was all nonsense and all we found was a room with a small, dirty bathtub. No spa, no fitness, no Jacuzzi, no nothing.
From that moment on, we just wanted to go home. But even that small glimmer of hope faded when we realized that this storm was heading towards land and would reach Hanoi on August 3rd at exactly 11:00. The only problem was that our flight was scheduled to depart on August 3rd at 11:10, and it's well known that flights are often canceled in such storms. Oh, and the best part is that the route to Bangkok goes right through the storm. It wouldn't be a problem if our flight back to Europe from Bangkok wasn't on the same day. You can imagine how nervous we were. Well, at least there are no storms in Bangkok. But there are bomb attacks. Hurray, this world is going down.

But we still had a bit of luck and the storm shifted more towards the south instead of going straight through Hanoi. Nevertheless, it rained heavily and we were very relieved when the plane took off, despite the very wet runway. The flight was extremely turbulent (of course, when flying through a storm), but we arrived safely in Bangkok. Here we are, waiting for our flight to Oman for 8 hours. 8 hours is a long time in an airport where you can only get a bit of noodles for 10.-. Well, in any case, we're looking forward to when the 36-hour journey back is over!

Although the trip ended rather unchill, we still look back and remember many great moments. First of all, Cambodia: From A to Z, a great country, a mega cool travel group, lovely people, and beautiful places. Then there's the city of Hoi An and especially the time in Phong Nha with the caves. And the best part: We went through it all together! :)